Rackspace Email Plus Review | PCMag

Formerly often known as Rackspace Hosted Exchange, Rackspace Email Plus is a low-cost email hosting reply for customers that want solely barely greater than only a mailbox however much less, than a full productiveness suite like those that include two of our Editors’ Choice winners Microsoft 365 Business Premium and Google Workspace Business Standard.

Still, its email-only options do effectively sufficient. Each mailbox comes with 25GB of storage, 30GB of on-line sharing, desktop file synchronization, entry to on-line doc and spreadsheet editors, and cellular sync for e mail, calendars, and contacts.

Rackspace Email Pricing and Plans

Rackspace provides its e mail internet hosting companies throughout two tiers. First is the Rackspace Email tier, which prices $2.99 per person per 30 days. This degree contains integration with Microsoft Outlook, a spam and virus filter, and 25GB price of e mail space for storing.

The tier we examined, Rackspace Email Plus, prices $3.99 per person per 30 days and provides file storage, help for ActiveSync, and a fundamental set of productiveness apps that work with the Microsoft Office suite. Email storage stays at 25GB however the file storage bucket is one other 30GB. There’s additionally an Archiving choice, which is not a tier unto itself however an extra characteristic you possibly can add to Rackspace Email Plus. It brings e mail archiving to your administration arsenal for an additional $6.99 per person per 30 days.

That’s an excellent total worth, although not fairly nearly as good as our lowest-cost contender, IceWarp Cloud. That platform begins at $2.50 per person per 30 days and whereas it does not supply extra e mail storage at that tier, it does embody 20GB of file storage. Above its Lite tier, IceWarp rapidly beats Rackspace in each e mail and file storage.

Getting Started

Rackspace is pretty easy to arrange. You should add your area for starters. The firm is blissful to host your area in case you like, or you possibly can present your individual. Be ready for the usual rigmarole of verifying possession and organising your DNS and MX information. Once you’ve got carried out that, you can begin including customers. There are three tiers of customers, which you’ll combine and match as wanted. The first is just a fundamental mailbox—POP3 and IMAP entry with restricted storage that solely prices $1 per 30 days. The subsequent tier up is appropriate to your typical workplace person, and the main target of this assessment. Beyond that, Microsoft 365 is obtainable as an add-on for customers who want it.

Once you’ve got created a number of mailboxes, you possibly can end the remainder of the setup course of by creating any aliases you need (alternate names to your mailboxes). You can even create group lists, which allow you to e mail a number of recipients with a single handle. Also helpful are a block listing and secure listing much like IceWarp’s blacklist and whitelist. It’s attainable to handle your organization’s listing as effectively. The remaining choices focus on webmail, very fundamental retention settings, and entry rights.

I felt that the Rackspace management panel seemed a bit dated and lacked the facility supplied by extra better-evolved, low-cost choices comparable to IceWarp and Zoho Mail. It would have been good, for instance, to have the flexibility to outline extra particular guidelines that govern spam. For the value, Rackspace Email Plus is a step behind on this space.

The webmail and calendar apps are pretty primitive, however do help fundamental Office doc and spreadsheet codecs. They’re undoubtedly not even near being absolutely appropriate with Microsoft Office, and the spreadsheet lags considerably behind Google Sheets, too, which has close to parity with Excel aside from a number of minor areas. The Rackspace platform does supply real-time collaboration much like Google Workspace’s, however whereas you need to use its instruments in a pinch, most individuals are going to favor Microsoft Outlook or their favourite e mail consumer.

In phrases of e mail and calendar, Rackspace principally will get the job carried out. There are no bells and whistles, however you possibly can test your messages, arrange an appointment, and ship out invitations as you’d count on. I strongly suspect that the majority prospects can be utilizing the service for its IMAP/POP3 help and disrespect the net app besides throughout journey or emergencies. Rackspace does help a synchronization instrument referred to as ActiveSync that retains your e mail, contacts, and calendar synced to the cloud. It is not as fancy because the always-on high quality of Exchange, nevertheless it works, even when it is older know-how.

Perhaps essentially the most helpful value-add is the file-sharing capabilities. 30GB is nothing to sneeze at, and if you have to bolt on an affordable different to a product like Dropbox, you would do worse. That mentioned, it is onerous to disregard Rackspace’s limits when in comparison with one thing just like the terabyte of cloud storage accessible to every person as a part of the OneDrive element in Microsoft 365 Business Premium (although it does outstrip the most affordable model of Google Workspace, which provides solely 10GB of storage).

Rackspace Security and Third-Party Integration

Rackspace has a strong monitor file for shielding information. The firm is SOC licensed and has made its SOC 3 Report accessible to obtain (the opposite two can be found after signing a nondisclosure settlement). One disappointing bit, nonetheless, is that the corporate will solely signal a HIPPA Business Associate Agreement (BAA) for Microsoft 365 accounts. That guidelines out Rackspace Email and Email Plus as viable choices in case you have delicate medical information to cope with.

The cloud drive is protected with 256-bit encryption, which is beefy in comparison with most. Information in transit, after all, is protected through Secure Socket Layer (SSL). Mailboxes are additionally defended by antivirus and anti-spam elements, which is normal follow in in the present day’s market.

Surprisingly, Rackspace does not combine with the rest. There is not any API (utility programming interface) and no clear plans to introduce one. To be trustworthy, an API is not needed for what Rackspace provides—fundamental e mail internet hosting with a number of frills, which is precisely what some of us want. If you do want integration, Rackspace in all probability figures you will go for its Microsoft 365 plans.

A Fair Value with a Microsoft Focus

Rackspace’s fundamental e mail tier might be the most effective worth in case you’re simply searching for low-profile e mail inboxes. Email Plus tries to be a center floor between these searching for one thing entry-level and prospects that want the corporate’s Microsoft 365 providing. But it comes up brief if you examine it to different merchandise in the identical worth bracket. Still, with the ability to combine and match fundamental e mail with Microsoft 365 is an enormous profit, and may very well be a draw for companies trying to increase their core use of Microsoft Office with out giving all people a full Office license.

Overall, although, there are simply too many different good choices on the market to advocate Rackspace as a primary cease. Zoho Mail is a positive low-cost choose, whereas Microsoft 365 Business Premium and Google Workspace Business Standard are our Editors’ Choice honorees and effectively price their value in case your price range permits.